Tuesday, February 3, 2015

"Yesterday, Turkey's Presidency of Religious Affairs (DİB) launched a new campaign for imams to raise awareness about organ donation, while DİB head Mehmet Görmez urged imams to donate their organs first before advising the congregation to do so.

"DİB, the top religious authority in the country, quashed a religious debate on whether donating organs is permissible in Islam by introducing a new campaign to raise public awareness about organ donation.

"Görmez and Minister of Health Mehmet Müezzinoğlu attended a meeting in order to inform religious figures on the matter in the Turkish capital Ankara.

"Görmez called upon imams, muftis and other members of the religious authority "to practice what they preached" and donate their own organs. "Sometimes, clerics fail to act in line with advice they dispense to their congregation. On this issue, we should lead the people. I call on my colleagues to tell their congregation in the sermons that they have donated their organs," Görmez said. "This will make people attending mosques heed your advice," he added.

"It is the greatest alms one can deliver from the heart," he said. Görmez said he found it odd that organ donation has been the subject of contention for decades among clerics. "Life, value of a human being's life are at the center of all religions," Görmez said. He quoted a verse from the Quran that says that killing someone is equal to killing humanity and giving life to another is equal to giving life to humanity."